


Belated Birthday

by thepudz



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Birthday, Crying, F/F, Fluff, Hugs, One Shot, Post-Canon, protect this wholesome content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:15:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27260311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thepudz/pseuds/thepudz
Summary: Catra had never even heard of 'birthday parties' before. The anniversary of the day of her birth was something she never gave a second thought to. After all, who would want to celebrate anything involving her, after everything she did in the Horde? However, it seems like Adora has other plans for Catra's special day...Fluffy Post-Canon One-Shot for Catra's birthday, because she deserves to be loved.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 168





	Belated Birthday

**Author's Note:**

> I only thought of this story five hours ago and wrote this in the span of a two hours and I have no regrets. I wanted to do something to celebrate the birthday of my favorite character in the series. Hope y'all like it too <3

“Hey Catra, don’t you have your birthday coming up tomorrow?”

“My… My what, now?”

It took a while, but Catra had eventually grown comfortable in this new bed of hers. She had been staying with Adora at Bright Moon for a few weeks now, and although the world had healed, she felt that the emotions carried from the war between the Rebellion and the Horde were still raw today.

Catra had changed. Or at least, that’s what Adora told her every now and then. However, she still felt like people looked at her and saw the same monster that tormented them for years. The same monster that nearly destroyed the planet. The same monster that caused so much misery.

Catra had been having trouble interacting with everyone else. She mostly stuck by Adora’s side, or had the occasional catch-up with Scorpia and Entrapta. Even then, she had trouble looking either of them in the eyes.

And so, she had spent the most amount of time with her girlfriend. And now to her, it seemed like Adora was speaking a whole other language.

“Your birthday,” Adora explained from the bathroom. As Catra laid in bed, Adora was running a comb through her long, almost golden hair. “It’s like… the anniversary of the day you were born. Tomorrow, you’ll be twenty-two years old.”

“Uh… Yeah, I guess so,” Catra spoke with a confused tone. She was beginning to wonder if Adora had truly become brain damaged.

“So that means we need to celebrate!” Adora spoke with an upbeat tone, poking her head out of the bathroom to smile at Catra. All she got in return was a raised eyebrow and a cocked head.

“I’m… not following. Why do we need to celebrate that?” Catra asked.

“… I forgot how depressing the Horde was,” Adora sighed, “don’t worry, I was confused at first too. But birthday parties are awesome! You get presents and cake and everyone celebrates stuff about you, and you get older and wiser!”

“Well, clearly that last part doesn’t apply to you,” Catra snickered. Adora pouted at her girlfriend, but she decided to let it slide for the sake of her upcoming birthday.

“Look, it’ll be really fun, okay? You’ve never had a birthday party before, so let’s do something tomorrow. I think you’ll really like it!” Adora suggested as she finished combing her hair, going over to the bed and sitting down next to Catra.

“Whoa, whoa, just… hang on a second,” Catra put her hands up. “So like… people will want to celebrate… me? Like, as a person?”

“Pretty much,” Adora shrugged.

“I, uh… I’m not so sure about that, Adora,” Catra shook her head. “I mean, it was only a few months ago that I was… well… you know…”

“Catra…” Adora slid her hand down the bed and placed atop Catra’s, stroking her palm with her thumb. “People would love to celebrate your birthday. We can make a cake and all too. It’s your special day and all.”

“I… I don’t even know how to celebrate birthdays!” Catra came up with the first excuse she could think of. “Heck, I don’t even know how to celebrate, full stop! I just… Can we skip it or something? I’m pretty sure no one would want to come anyway.”

“Well… If, hypothetically, you could get people to come over here and we have a whole party for you… Would that make you happy?” Adora asked. Catra brought her knees up to her chest as she held Adora’s hand. She rested her chin on her knees, looking down at her feet as she rocked her head from side to side.

“… Kinda,” Catra admitted in a mumbled tone. Adora smiled, squeezing Catra’s hand out of reassurance. “But it’s fine. I can tell no one really likes talking to me anyway, so a… ‘birthday party’ is definitely off the table.”

“Well, if no one comes, we’ll do something together. Just you and me, okay?” Adora offered. Catra’s eyes looked up to Adora as she rested her chin on her knees, and she smiled.

“I’d like that.”

Adora leaned forward and planted a soft kiss on Catra’s forehead, running a gentle hand through her short hair. “I love you,” Adora whispered, running her hand around to rest it on Catra’s cheek.

“I love you too,” Catra responded. “Even if I’m pretty sure you’re just making this whole ‘birthday party’ thing up just to mess with me.”

“Do you really think I’m that cruel?” Adora asked with a smirk.

“I think you have a twisted side somewhere underneath that Pure Princess exterior you’ve got going,” Catra snickered.

Adora chuckled softly as she laid down on the bed, looking into her girlfriend’s loving eyes. “Good night, Catra.”

“Night, Princess,” Catra spoke in a hoarse voice, her hand still holding Adora’s tightly as they lay together in the dark room.

Catra watched Adora slowly close her eyes and drift away into slumber. Her hair sprawled out on the pillow as she continued to hold Catra’s hand, even thought it was beginning to grow a bit too warm in Catra’s palm. Still, she didn’t let go.

Catra wondered what she ever did to deserve a girlfriend that loved her like Adora did. She had spent years convinced Adora hated her or looked down at her. She was still stuck in the state of mind that Adora was just messing with her or using her, even though her heart knew that was wrong.

Still. The thought itched at the back of her mind, no matter how hard she tried to push it away.

“A birthday party…” Catra scoffed to herself. “Yeah, right.”

* * *

When Catra awoke the next morning, she found that the other side of the bed was completely empty.

Catra blinked as she woke up to the light from outside glaring in through the window. Oddly enough, she couldn’t hear a shower running. Adora always made a habit of showering in the morning, so the fact that Adora was flat-out missing from the bedroom in the morning caused Catra some confusion.

As Catra sat up and ran a hand through her own hair, she let out a sigh. “So I guess today’s my birthday…” She mumbled to herself. She didn’t feel any wiser. Nor did she even feel special. Like usual, she felt like someone who didn’t really belong in a place as grand as Bright Moon.

After showering alone for the first time in a while and putting on some comfortable clothes, Catra emerged from the bedroom, looking down either side of the hallway outside of her and Adora’s room. To her surprise, no one was there. Not even a single guard. Bright Moon felt completely and utterly dead.

“Right…” Catra sighed as she closed the door behind her. With how good her luck is, she half expected absolutely no one to show up for her birthday. But not even Adora was here. She wondered if she had actually been abandoned on what was supposed to be her ‘special day’.

Catra heard only her footsteps echo as she walked towards the dining room for breakfast, something she did with Adora almost every day. It felt extraordinarily uncomfortable to not even hear a distant conversation.

When she entered the dining room, just like the rest of Bright Moon, it was completely empty. Not a single person in sight, and not even a hint that someone had been there in the first place. All the chairs were pushed into their tables, and the floor was sparkling with how clean it was.

Catra held onto her left wrist and frantically looked around, almost beginning to worry now. Had something actually happened? She had no clue. She found a table to sit down at. Normally she’d be sitting right next to Adora. Maybe even Scorpia every now and then.

“… Well, this makes sense, the more I think about it,” Catra said to herself. The silence was almost terrifying, so it had to be filled with some noise. “I mean, who would ever want to celebrate something involving me? Of course no one would be here.”

She rested an elbow on the table. “You’re used to this by now, Catra. Come on. Did you actually expect a ‘party’? Please,” Catra chuckled to herself. How stupid she was to look forward to anything.

“Still… Not even Adora is here. Did she wise up and realize that being around me is like having a ball and chain attached to her ankle at all times? Probably,” Catra shrugged. She was used to this. She had to be used to this. She should never get her hopes up for anything.

Catra looked outside to the Whispering Woods. She wondered what everyone else was doing. Had they gone somewhere and not bothered to invite her? Probably. Maybe they forgot all about her. Maybe they didn’t even want her there.

“Maybe I should just celebrate by myself. Uh… how do people even do this?” Catra pondered. What do birthday parties even consist of? “Adora said there were presents… Uh… well, I guess I forgot to get myself something. And then she said there was cake… I’m pretty sure I’m banned from the kitchen after I tried to make stir-fry for Adora.”

Catra sighed. “Guess that leaves laying in bed and doing nothing all day…”

She stood up and looked out to the Whispering Woods for a few more seconds, almost expecting anyone to be down there. She wanted to see Adora waving her over so they could go on a walk. She wanted to see Scorpia inviting her for a picnic.

But Catra learned a long time ago that she didn’t deserve to ‘want’ anything. This was her punishment, after all.

When Catra turned around to go back to her bedroom, she suddenly found that she was face-to-face with Adora, a wide grin on her face.

“Surprise!” Catra suddenly heard nearly a dozen voices cheer, and her first instinct was to yelp and jump back, her heart jumping almost out of her chest as Catra got into a fighting stance, practically hissing at everyone else.

“Where did you come from?!” Catra yelled at Adora, but soon realized it wasn’t just her girlfriend. She eventually noticed Glimmer, Scorpia, Entrapta, Mermista, and all of the other people she had gotten to know over the last few weeks. Among them stuck out Bow, who already had tears on his cheeks.

“Was it the Horde’s job to make you miserable?! How could you have never had a birthday party once in your life?!” Bow sobbed loudly, and Glimmer had to comfort him, though she did it with a look of embarrassment.

Catra also noticed a large, pink cake on the table before her. And everyone was wearing weird, pointed hats with a wide array of colors. “What… What is…” Catra tried to find any words to say, but none were coming.

“It’s a surprise birthday party!” Adora beamed. “It’s like a normal birthday party, but we start by scaring the crap out of you! I think it worked,” Adora grinned.

Catra looked around. All the Princesses, all of the people she had gotten to know over the last few weeks. She recognized all of them. Some of them, she had tormented in the past. And yet they were all here. “Why… Why did you come here…?”

“Uh, why wouldn’t we?” Mermista asked.

“You’re twenty-two! Oh, you’ve grown so much from when I first met you!” Scorpia clapped her large pincers together.

“I got some help in making the cake! It was the first time we made something this big!” Entrapta beamed, gesturing towards it with her arms outstretched.

Catra looked at each person with wide eyes. “No… I mean… why did you come here for me? For… this? Don’t you have better things to do?” Catra asked.

“What’s better than celebrating the birthday of a dear friend?” Perfuma asked, tilting her head to the side in confusion.

“Friend…?” Catra said.

“I do have to make up for that time I punched you in the face with an ice fist…” Frosta spoke.

“And you were a helping hand in saving my wife from brainwashing,” Netossa smiled. “Sure, you may have done some messed up stuff in the past, but you’re clearly trying to be a different person now, right?”

“I…” Catra had lost any meaningful way of responding. Instead, she saw Adora hold up a small plate before her, with a slice of cake on it.

“Happy birthday, Catra. I love you so much, and I hope we can have many more birthday parties like this. We’ve got to make up for all the ones we lost in the Horde!” Adora grinned as Catra took the plate. Her expression of wide eyed had not changed in a while, she was still gobsmacked that anyone showed up.

As she looked down at the cake, and looked up at all the people around her, Catra felt her throat begin to squeeze tight, and her lips began to wobble. “Thank…” Catra tried to push out a ‘thank you’, but it got lost in all the swelling emotion.

“Catra? You okay?” Scorpia asked, but soon enough, the only response she was met with was heavy sobs from Catra.

The woman who prided herself on being strong around others and never showing emotion began to break down as her chest heaved with countless sobs, and tears began to stream down her cheeks. She held onto the plate as she began to cry, and she hung her head out of embarrassment. “Dammit…” Catra sobbed, cursing herself for being this pathetic.

But instead of laughter, Catra was met with Adora’s arms wrapping around her shoulder and holding her close. “It’s okay to cry. We understand,” Adora whispered, not mocking Catra but comforting her.

“Come on, bring it in, wildcat,” Scorpia spoke in a soothing tone as she wrapped her large pincers around Adora and Catra. Soon enough, Catra found she was being hugged on all fronts. Something she used to have nightmares about, but now, more than ever, she desperately needed the affection. She used to hate physical contact, but she was beginning to see the appeal.

Catra didn’t feel special. She didn’t feel wiser. She still didn’t understand why birthdays were so important. But for now, Catra felt loved. She felt accepted.

On her birthday, Catra felt happy.


End file.
